Innovation in Translation: Scaling-up Meaning in any Language

Scalable, quality translation would be a huge boon to
businesses and societies at large. As we’ve documented time and time again,
brands interested in growing in the century ahead need to look beyond their
home borders for future profits. Demand for talented linguists is rising every
year. Without innovative solutions to help speed translation, businesses may
face major bottlenecks when it comes to international expansion. So what’s going
on with attempts to democratize and scale-up translation power?

Crowd Control
and Machine Translation

While we’ve all probably used Google Translate at one
time or another to piece together information on the web, the service is still
far short of the quality translations that businesses require to build
relationships with new customers. One way to improve the quality of automated
translation like Google’s is through human feedback. Essentially, the approach
involves submitting subtle corrections and improvements by native speakers in
order to help teach algorithms that improve the translation machine. As a part
of this effort, Google includes a feature which allows everyday users to rate
translations based on accuracy, whether or not they’re helpful, and if they’re
offensive. Acclaro and other professional agencies use a similar approach when
the situation calls for automated translations. By using a crowd or small group
of professional editors, the machine can learn how to produce better, more
targeted results.

Slated:
Texting in Translation

While automated translation tools have made chatting
with people in other languages somewhat easier, the process is still fairly
labor intensive. One innovative approach to solving this problem is Slated’s
new iOS 8 keyboard app. Slated performs texting translations in real time,
creating the target language message on the fly. It also translates in reverse,
allowing you to read and understand replies. Currently the app supports 81
languages. Reviews suggest that it app
does a good job keeping basic meaning intact, even if the syntax isn’t dead-on.

Though human linguists are essential to business
translation, each new experiment suggests we’re moving closer and closer to
connecting the nuanced understanding of the human mind to the power of
networked tech.